Study links moderate wine drinking, lower stroke risk

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Reports about the health benefits -- or
risks -- of food and drink may leave people asking whether
the glass is half-empty or half-full.

New research about wine leans toward the more optimistic view.

A 16-year study of 13,000 people in Denmark has found that a
daily glass of wine may significantly reduce the risk of
stroke.

"Apparently, it seems to be a beneficial effect of a weekly
intake of wine on the risk of stroke in our population," said
Thomas Truelsen of the Institute of Preventive Medicine.

Doctors aren't yet ready to recommend hoisting a glass every
day. Regular exercise and weight control still far outweigh
the benefits of a daily drink.

But researchers who studied the Danish group noted that those
who drank roughly one glass of wine daily -- red or white --
had a 32-percent reduction in their risk of stroke. The same
was not true of beer or liquor drinkers.

It's not the first time wine has been linked to good health.
Just last month, American researchers found elements in dark
red grapes which may reduce stroke risk.

"We found that when you bathe the cells that cause clotting
in people in a solution of purple grape juice, they have much
less tendency to form clots," said Jane Freedman, a
researcher at Georgetown University Medical Center.

Roughly 700,000 people in the United States suffer strokes
every year. What help these findings may be to them is
uncertain.

Stuart Seides, a cardiologist with the American Heart
Association, points out that the study is based on one
ethnic population, while Americans are a diverse lot with
many different dietary habits.

A glass of wine each day for many Americans may not cancel out other risky behaviors, such as physical inactivity and poor diet.

"Certainly we know there are a lot of detrimental effects of
drinking heavily -- which would only be say, in this case, more than two drinks per day -- with regard to breast cancer for women in the younger age group, (and) with regard to cancer (and) cirrhosis," said the Institute of Preventive Medicine's Morton Gronbaek.